Page 32 of Ice Cold Liar (Ice Breaker Cold Case #14)

“We do all have our talents,” she agreed. “You two are apparently talented when it comes to protection and keeping people alive. After some careful consideration, I’ve decided that means we should all work together.”

They both turned toward her.

“Uh, Naomi,” Hunter began, voice amused, “you’re already at the safe house with us. That means we are working together.”

“I debated leaving right after the meal. Sneaking over and hot-wiring the Impala while you two were out here throwing back beers.”

They were not throwing back beers. He’d had maybe three sips and Hunter’s bottle was three-fourths full.

“I have experience hot-wiring. Did it back when I was a kid.”

“The joy rides,” Eb said. His gaze drank her in. She’d changed clothes. Put on leg-hugging jeans. A top that flowed lightly over her breasts. Sneakers. All clothes that had come courtesy of Hunter because the guy had gotten bags prepared for them both. Bags that had been waiting at the safe house.

“I’m not surprised that you dipped into my past to learn all my naughty secrets,” she retorted, voice tight. “I’m also not surprised that—when it comes to me—you only learned part of the truth.”

He leaned his hip against the porch railing. The thunder came again. Louder.

“I stole a car when I was fifteen. Had to do it. The foster home I was at—there was this real jerk named Paxton who also lived at the place—he liked to sneak into my bedroom at night.”

Eb lunged away from the railing. “What?”

“He was two years older than me. The real kid in the family, you know? The biological one. I was just the extra they’d taken in. Paxton didn’t get why I wasn’t totally into him. Girls had always liked him. Fallen at his feet. I didn’t fall.”

“Naomi…”

“Guy didn’t take rejection well. So he’d come in, he’d scare the hell out of me, and he’d try to touch me.

” Flat words. Fast words. “I wasn’t in the mood to be touched, so I swiped a knife from the kitchen.

I kept it with me. One night, he came in again, and I sliced his hand.

He screamed, and I ran, and I jumped in that car and…

” She walked toward the railing. Didn’t look at Eb or Hunter as she stared into the night.

“It was easy for the parents to just tell everyone I was a troublemaker who’d taken the car for a joy ride.

Better to say that than to reveal that their precious high school quarterback son was a creep who’d had a finger nearly sliced away when he touched someone that he shouldn’t have touched. ”

Paxton. Eb would not forget the name. He’d be finding the creep.

“I was the villain back then. I’m the villain now.

Played the role a few times actually. Because it’s all about the story that gets the most attention, isn’t it?

It’s about who gets to tell the story first, too.

” She slanted a glance his way. “By the way, I made sure to wreck that car. It was Paxton’s.

It really pissed him off when he found it slammed into a tree. ”

He wanted to reach out to her. Wanted to hold her and make everything better, only he was one of the people making life worse for her.

Thunder quaked once again. Still distant but…

“Must be one hell of a storm coming,” Naomi murmured. A long sigh. “Detective Anderson found out about Paxton. Told me I had a history of using a knife on my lovers. Just made me look guiltier.”

“Paxton talked to Anderson?” Hunter asked.

She nodded. “He came to town.”

“Fuck,” Hunter breathed. “Hello, suspect.”

Her hair slid over her shoulder. Her focus had shifted away from the darkness of the night and onto Eb. “You’re not saying anything.”

Because rage choked him. He wanted to get his hands on Paxton. Teach the SOB that you didn’t touch what did not belong to you.

“Guess you don’t believe me, huh? Think I’m just spinning some other wild story to cover my own guilt?”

“I think I want to break both of Paxton’s hands.”

He heard the sudden sharp inhalation as she sucked in a breath. “What?”

“I believe you,” he said. He would keep giving her those words until she understood exactly what they meant.

“No secrets. From here on out. Not for me. No secrets. No lies. You might not like the truth I have for you, like the fact that I am one hundred percent serious about breaking that jackass’s hands, but I will be honest. You have my word. ”

Silence.

But she was weighing him. Studying him. Judging him?

Aw, baby. Don’t do that. I’ll fail when you judge me. Because he knew exactly what he was. What he’d done. He also knew that he should never have put his blood-stained hands on her.

The tension in the air thickened as they stared at each other.

“Okay.” Hunter drummed his fingers on the wooden porch column. “I’m still standing here. Feeling like a third wheel, so I’m just gonna try and get us all back on track. That cool?”

Eb didn’t glance his way.

“Like I was saying a few minutes ago, I’m no profiler.

But I have chased down enough predators in my time that I know how a lot of them think.

I can see where you two were figuring that the fire and the attack on Ivan were linked—that they could have been done by the same person.

Maybe you even suspect the bat was left there to frame Naomi. ”

Naomi nodded.

Eb agreed. They were both thinking?—

“That’s certainly a possibility. But…all of this? There’s another scenario that can play out here, too. What’s happening might not be about hate. You have to realize that. Love can twist you up just as much as hate can.”

Now Eb’s gaze flew to Hunter. They’d turned the porch light off when darkness fell. The better to not attract the million bugs out there, so Hunter’s form was a big shadow. “What are you talking about?” Yeah, Eb absolutely felt twisted up.

“Maybe Ivan did set the fire. Maybe he was pissed at Naomi. Maybe he’d been pissed at her for a while, and he got one of his guys to go in and disable the smoke alarms at her place.”

Eb had told him that detail earlier. The disabled alarms bothered the hell out of him because they showed premeditation. Someone planned for Naomi to burn. This was no spur-of-the-moment attack.

“But I figure Ivan likes a personal touch. So maybe his men set the groundwork. Then he went in—all pissed because Naomi had taken Henry back?—”

Henry had flopped on the porch after Naomi came outside. But at the sound of his name, his big head lifted.

“So Ivan comes out to start the fire himself. Only he doesn’t count on being seen at the house while the fire is raging.”

Eb shook his head. “We didn’t see him.”

“Not talking about you. I’m talking about the person who was watching Naomi’s house. The person who saw Ivan, got pissed as hell at what he’d done, and grabbed Naomi’s bat to go and punish him.”

His muscles tightened. “Say again?”

“You told me a few minutes ago that the bat was in the bed of her truck.”

Yeah, he had told him that. While they were doing a rundown of the case after eating.

“So go with me here a moment, would you? Let’s just say this guy didn’t like what he’d seen.

Didn’t like that Ivan torched her place with Naomi inside.

He was pissed. He grabbed the bat and he went for his vengeance.

Got there and beat the hell out of Ivan.

Instead of the attacks being linked, we’re looking at two separate events.

One, the fire—potentially set by Ivan. Two, the beating that Ivan got by our unknown perp.

A perp who did it not to set up Naomi but because he didn’t want anyone hurting her.

” He took a quick swig from the beer. “Just a theory. But sometimes, it helps to look at something from a different perspective. Maybe not everyone in this town believes that she is a villain. Maybe someone out there thinks she needs protecting. Maybe that’s what he’s been doing all along.

Protecting her. I mean, if she didn’t kill her husband, then just maybe the person who did was trying to protect her from Hudson. To eliminate the threat Hudson posed.”

“That’s one hell of a protector.” Or a completely obsessed psychopath. Or?—

An alarm started beeping.

Hunter pulled out his phone. “Speaking of eliminating threats…that wasn’t freaking thunder that we were all hearing. We have company coming. Just passed the front gate.” He cursed. “Not a pizza delivery guy this time. Got motorcycles. Coming in hot.”

Eb could hear the thundering— growling —sound of the bikes.

So much clearer because they were close.

Dammit. He caught Naomi’s hand instantly and hauled her into the house.

Hunter was steps in front of him, and Henry was right behind him.

Eb locked the back door. Made sure the extra bolts were in place.

“Eb!” Hunter called his name.

Eb turned and caught the gun that Hunter had just tossed to him.

“No!” A quick yell from Naomi. “Don’t throw guns! Don’t ever throw guns at each other! Let’s make that a new rule, all right? Because you could drop the gun and it could fire and one of us could get shot .”

He pushed the gun he’d just caught into her hand. “You know how to use this.” A statement, not a question.

She blinked those deep, soul-stealing eyes of hers at him. “I know how to use this.”

Of course, she did. “I want to kiss you.”

“What?”

“Tell me no.”

Her eyes widened.

“Eb!” An annoyed shout from Hunter. “We do not have time for bullshit. I’m counting seven bikes.

Each with a pissed-off rider. There are two of us.

Sure, I like the odds, but how about we focus on the attack and save everything else for later, okay?

” He looked down at his phone. At the security feed that had to be showing on the screen.

“Great. Now it’s ten bikes. Dammit. They are out for blood.

I think I’m about to have an up close meeting with Ivan’s gang. ”

Eb backed away from Naomi.

Her left hand—the hand not holding the gun—flew out and fisted in his shirtfront. “You aren’t going outside.”

That was exactly where he was going. He was planning to snag another gun first, but, yep, outside was the destination.

“There are ten of them.”

So he’d heard. “Their leader was just killed, and Hunter is right—they’re out for blood. They aren’t going to leave.” Not without their prey. And he knew he was looking at that prey. Naomi. “They’ll either bust in or I can go meet them.”

Her grip twisted in his shirt even more. “Then let them bust in! Let’s call the cops!”

They could be dead before the cops arrived. He tore his gaze from her worried face. “Hunter, I know this place must have a safe room.”

“Upstairs. Second room on the right,” Hunter replied instantly. He was checking his weapon.

“Go upstairs,” Eb urged as his head turned back toward Naomi. “Second?—”

“I heard him,” she tossed right back. “You come with me. You both come with me. We’ll call the cops.”

Wasn’t gonna work like that. “If I don’t go out, then?—”

“Um, they have gasoline cans,” Hunter announced.

Eb’s head whipped toward him once more. Hunter was done checking his weapon and had returned to peering down at his phone screen.

“Pickup truck just arrived.” Hunter glanced up. Shared a grim look with Eb. “Something tells me that if we don’t go out on our own, they’ll burn us out.”

No one was burning Naomi. So…new plan. “We’ll distract them.” He hauled the keys out of his pocket. Took the delicate hand that Naomi had been twisting in his shirtfront, and he pressed his keys into her palm. “I moved the Impala to the back. Near the garage.”

“I know where it is! I told you I considered hot-wiring it and leaving.”

But she hadn’t left. She’d come to him and told him about her past. She’d stayed.

And I will protect her. I’ll do whatever it takes. “You wait until we have their full attention, then you and Henry haul ass. Get to the Impala. Get in it. Go. I’ll find you when this is over.”

How the hell had the gang found them so quickly?

He was sure they hadn’t been followed when they left the police station. He’d been so very careful. And only Hunter had met the pizza driver at the edge of the property. Naomi and Eb hadn’t been seen.

“You want me to leave you,” Naomi said. Her nose scrunched. “While you face off with a gang.”

“Yep, that’s the plan.” He sure as hell would have liked to kiss her once more, but?—

She rose onto her tiptoes. The hand holding the keys looped around his neck and hauled him toward her. Their mouths met in a passionate crash. Lips parted. Tongues tasted. Lust flared. And?—

“For fuck’s sake!” Hunter’s disgruntled exclamation. “I’m good, but I can’t take out ten guys on my own. A little help, Eb, and a little less make-out time, got it?”

He got it. Eb backed away from Naomi.

Her breath heaved. “You’re not supposed to be a real hero.”

“I’m not.” He grabbed a second gun. “Wait until we have their attention.”

“Don’t you dare get shot. Or burned!”

He planned to do the shooting. “Just haul that sweet ass as far from here as you can get.”

Hunter cleared his throat. “There’s a dirt path that cuts from the garage in the back. Get the car out, keep the headlights off, and just drive out that way. If anyone tries to give chase, Eb and I will stop them.”

Henry circled Naomi’s feet.

Eb gave the golden a brief pat. “Keep her safe.”

The motorcycles roared louder outside, like the bikers were deliberately flaring the engines to send a message…probably because they were.

Come out, come out…

Eb spun on his heel and walked away from Naomi. Because he had to. Because she had to be protected.

“They have kicked the wrong hornet’s nest,” Hunter said.

“Damn straight, they have.” They weren’t going out the front door. What were they, idiots? They’d open the door and likely get shot.

Nah. A better plan was always at play. This was not amateur night. The gang was about to learn that very important fact.

“You weren’t supposed to be a real hero!” Naomi argued again.

He glanced back at her. Smiled. “I’m not, sweetheart.” The gang was about to learn that fact. “But I’m the best assassin you’ll ever meet.”

Shock flashed on her face.