The Angel and the Outlaw Page 13

  “It sounds worth a try.”

  Cooper set the cue stick down on the table, then rested his hand beside her hip. “Fighting Sproule in the open is going to be risky. We’ll need to watch our backs every time we step out of the Long Shot.”

  “I realize that.”

  “There’s no telling how long it’ll take, either. It could be weeks. Maybe months. Do you think you can stick it out?”

  Although he wasn’t touching her, she could feel the heat from his body. She inhaled the clean scent of his soap. “Whatever is necessary, Cooper. We’re partners.”

  “Is that all?”

  “Maybe we could be…friends.”

  He looked at her in silence for a minute, then lifted one hand to her cheek. “Friends?”

  “Is that so hard to believe?”

  “When a woman looks like you do, yeah, that’s a stretch.”

  “Cooper…”

  “Then there’s the way you look at me. It’s more than friendly, Hayley.”

  It wouldn’t do her any good to deny it. She felt her skin warm beneath his fingers.

  “I don’t know how you do it, but when you look at me, I can feel it. Everywhere.” He rested his thumb on the curve of her jaw. “It’s like you’re touching me. It’s as real as this.”

  She focused on the cleft in his chin. “Despite what happened upstairs earlier, I’m not looking for a personal relationship with you, Cooper.”

  “A personal relationship?”

  She decided to be blunt. “An affair, then. I’m not going to get romantically involved with you.”

  “You said you had nothing to go back to in Chicago.”

  “I don’t.”

  “What about a boyfriend?”

  “Not anymore.”

  “Why not?”

  “It didn’t work out.”

  He tipped up her chin and waited until she met his gaze. “Why not, Hayley?”

  “Why do you want to know, Cooper? Is it because you care, or only because you want to sleep with me?”

  He regarded her in silence, just as he had the other time she had asked him the same question.

  She slipped out of his grasp and turned away from the table. “Don’t answer that. It doesn’t make any difference.”

  “It’s both, Hayley.”

  She stopped. “You don’t have to say—”

  “It’s a hell of a thing, isn’t it? If I didn’t care, I wouldn’t have left you alone after that kiss this morning.” He moved behind her and caught her shoulders to hold her in place. “I wouldn’t have walked away when every inch of my body wanted to strip you naked and have you in my bed.”

  She pressed her lips together. The image in her mind arose far too easily. The big bed on the platform in the far corner of the loft, Cooper moving over her, skin sliding on skin…

  “If I didn’t care, I would have cut you loose days ago and we wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place.” He stepped closer, easing her back against his chest. “You get to me, Hayley. You did from the first time I saw you. I tell myself to keep away from you, but it doesn’t work.”

  All he had to do was touch her and her brain started to shut down. She curled her nails into her palms. “But you don’t want to care about me, do you? Because I’m Adam’s sister.”

  “It would be simpler if you weren’t.”

  “It’s more than that. You don’t want to care about anyone.”

  There was another silence. She waited him out.

  “It’s not something I normally do,” he said finally.

  She realized that. And the more she learned about him, the better she understood his need for emotional defenses. He might be a good man underneath his tough shell, but that shell was part of who he was. Did she really want the heartache of trying to get past it? “You wanted to know why my last relationship didn’t work out.”

  He slipped one arm across the front of her shoulders. “Why?”

  “Because he didn’t love me.”

  Cooper’s arm tensed.

  “That’s been the pattern of my life,” she said. “I always seem to fall for men who aren’t able to love me.”

  “Hayley—”

  “They say they care, and I keep hoping for more, but it doesn’t happen. They keep their hearts behind their walls and I can’t change them, no matter how hard I try.”

  “Does it have to be all or nothing?”

  She took his arm and pulled it away. “It hurts too much if it isn’t, Cooper. I won’t go through that again.”

  He dropped his hand to his side. His breath stirred her hair. “Are you falling for me?”

  She closed her eyes. He often told her she was no good at hiding her feelings, but she knew he couldn’t see her face, so she risked the lie. “No.”

  It was the same gravel pit where he had met Nathan Beliveau the week before. There was no moon tonight—a cloud bank had crept in at sunset. Through the open window of his pickup, Cooper could smell the oncoming rain, but not a breath of air stirred. He waited until the headlights he’d been watching swung through the rusted gate at the entrance to the pit and fanned down the ramp, then switched on his pickup’s lights. A black SUV rolled into the beams and came to a stop twenty yards away. He checked his watch. He had arrived here two hours early. Sproule was half an hour late.

  It was the control thing again. He’d expected it. He hadn’t expected Sproule to keep his word about coming alone, either. Another SUV followed the first and moved into position to its left. Through the dust that drifted over their tracks, a black sedan glided down the ramp and came to a stop thirty feet from the bumper of Cooper’s truck.

  Cooper got out and walked into the light, then halted with his arms held out at his sides.

  The doors of the SUVs opened. Two of the men who had accompanied Sproule to their first meeting at the Long Shot approached Cooper to pat him down for weapons. At their nod, the driver’s door of the sedan swung open. Evidently, Sproule was doing his own driving tonight. Was it a control thing, too? Or did he have personal business to tend to later, as he’d had the night he had run down Adam?

  Cooper crossed his arms and waited.

  In the glare of four sets of headlights, Oliver Sproule looked like a walking corpse. His face was leached of color and as expressionless as a stone. “You have five minutes,” he said. “I’m a busy man.”

  “Busy selling the load of plasma screens I brought you?” Cooper asked.

  “There was an unforeseen complication.”

  “Is that right?”

  “Our deal was that you would receive sixty percent of the profits. There were none. Therefore, I owe you nothing.”

  “You might want to reconsider, Ollie.”

  Sproule’s eyelid twitched. His lip moved into a hint of a sneer. “And you should have reconsidered your choice of women.”

  Cooper flicked his gaze to the men who had searched him. They had moved back a few steps, but they had been joined by two more. The drivers were still in the vehicles, so at a minimum, that made at least six, not counting Sproule.

  “I had my suspicions about you all along, Mr. Webb,” Oliver continued. “I’m aware of everything that happens in Latchford, and I know that you haven’t done a job since you finished your sentence. I found it strange that you would want to do business with me after all that time, but a prior acquaintance of yours vouched for you so I gave you the benefit of the doubt.”

  He had to be talking about Izzy, Cooper thought. There was no sign of his bald head anywhere, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t inside one of the vehicles. Sproule likely hadn’t realized yet that Izzy was stealing from him.

  “It was imprudent of you to abuse my trust.”

  “Yeah, I can see you’re a real trusting guy,” Cooper said, gesturing to the men around them. At his motion, one of them slipped his hand inside his jacket, no doubt reaching for a shoulder holster. Cooper returned his gaze to Sproule. “But you still owe me money.”

  Sproul
e took a step closer, his lips compressing with irritation. “Don’t push me, Webb. The only thing I’m going to give you is some advice.”

  “Gee, I can’t wait.”

  “I don’t tolerate opposition. You chose the wrong side when you took in Hayley Tavistock. I advise you to correct that as soon as possible.”

  “I was only doing my civic duty, seeing as how you burned her house to the ground.”

  “An unfortunate accident.”

  “Yeah, seems to be a lot of that going around. First her brother, then her.”

  “If you’re as smart as you pretend to be, you’ll make sure you’re not nearby when the next one happens.”

  “That’s not a problem,” Cooper said. “There isn’t going to be a next one.”

  “You have no idea who you’re talking to, Webb. I can do what I want in this town. You’re a nobody, just some loser bartender who wasn’t even a good thief. You’re not going to stop me.”

  Cooper pressed his tongue to his front teeth and let out a shrill whistle.

  Instantly, lights flashed on around the rim of the gravel pit. High-powered beams flooded the area, turning the night to day. Some of Sproule’s men drew guns from beneath their jackets, squinting against the brightness as they pointed their weapons upward, but there was nothing to aim at. The glare was blinding.

  They, on the other hand, became instant targets. The two SUVs and the sedan on the floor of the pit provided little cover. They were surrounded and completely exposed.

  Cooper kept his gaze on Sproule and raised his right arm. The air echoed with the sound of weapons being cocked. “Tell your men to put their guns down,” Cooper ordered.

  It took a full minute before Sproule complied. He did, though. Cooper knew he would. Sproule preferred his fights to be one-sided, like running down a solitary man or trying to kill a lone woman.

  That was why Cooper had come to their meeting site two hours early to even up the odds. Pete and the rest of the guys had had plenty of time to hook up the floodlights they had borrowed from a construction site near the highway and position themselves where they couldn’t be seen. Cooper hadn’t liked the idea of the guns—he’d never used a weapon on any of his jobs—but they were necessary when dealing with someone like Sproule.

  “You didn’t really think I was going to take you at your word and come alone, did you, Ollie?”

  Sproule was having trouble maintaining his control. His eyelid was twitching continuously now. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  “Giving you some advice. Keep away from the Long Shot. I protect what’s mine.”

  “You fool. The woman isn’t worth it, or are you so hard up for a piece of ass—”

  Cooper brought his arm down fast. There was a sharp crack from his left. Dust puffed into the air ten inches from Sproule’s right foot.

  Sproule stumbled back. Two of his men made a motion toward the guns they had dropped but Cooper stopped them by lifting his arm again. “Don’t push me, Sproule, or you’ll be the first to go. Tell your men to stay where they are.”

  Sproule nodded and made a quick gesture with his hand. Sweat beaded his upper lip. “We don’t need to do this, Webb. We could negotiate a new agreement for that load of televisions.”

  “I guess I forgot to tell you. They weren’t mine, they were Tony Monaco’s.”

  It didn’t seem possible, but Sproule’s face paled even more. “Tony Monaco?”

  “I see you’ve heard of him.”

  He passed the back of his hand over his mouth. He glanced toward the lights that surrounded them. “I didn’t know you were a friend of Tony’s.”

  “We have a business arrangement.”

  “You should have told me that from the start. How much money do you want? Name your price.”

  “I already have. Keep away from the Long Shot. It’s off-limits. So is anyone named Tavistock. That includes the old man.”

  “I’m a businessman, Webb. There’s no profit in wasting my time with that invalid. My quarrel is with the woman.”

  “Then that makes it simpler. Hayley Tavistock is under my protection.” He paused. “So is anyone else in this town who doesn’t want to play your game.”

  Sproule regarded him flatly. “You’re starting a war. Why? Because of a woman?”

  He wasn’t about to tell Sproule his real reasons.

  “I’m just keeping a promise,” Cooper said.

  Chapter 10

  Cooper leaned his back against the trunk of a lone willow, letting the memories stir at the bitter scent of the leaves. There used to be a tangled grove of willows and an old wooden boathouse along this stretch of the Latchford Lake shoreline when he’d been a kid. The area hadn’t been built up then, so this used to be a popular place to party and have a few beers. When the weather was good, sometimes he would skip school and come down here in the afternoon. He could stay as long as he liked, because no one had bothered to look for him.

  There was no trace of the boathouse now, or the beer cans that had once littered the weeds at the water’s edge. The bank had been cleaned up and tamed with a neat cement wall topped by a railing when it had become part of Applewood Manor’s manicured grounds.

  Hayley stood at the railing beside her father’s wheelchair, her face turned toward the breeze from the lake. Her hair streamed behind her in the sunshine in a halo of butter-blond curls. She wore the cream-colored dress again. It rippled over her breasts and thighs the way Cooper wished he could touch her. She looked good enough to eat, or maybe lick slowly….

  He dropped his head against the tree trunk. Damn, why had he told her the choice would be hers?

  It had been a long five days. Frustrating in every way. He didn’t know how he had kept his hands off her, but he had. It helped that she slept so long and so soundly—she usually didn’t stir when he got back to the loft after closing the Long Shot and she was still asleep when he got up. The rest of the time she did her best to keep busy and to limit their conversation to business, but not a second went by when he wasn’t conscious of her presence.

  It was a special kind of hell, and there was no end in sight.

  So far, Sproule hadn’t made a move against them, yet they hadn’t made much progress against Sproule, either.

  Ken had set up a computer for Hayley in Cooper’s office, and she had been slowly rebuilding the material that had been lost in the fire, but they knew it wouldn’t be enough to take to the feds. Although information was starting to trickle in from some of the Long Shot’s customers, and Pete and the guys had been keeping tabs on the action at Sproule’s warehouse and his estate, it wasn’t enough, either. Rumors were flying that some big plan involving Sproule and Volski was in the works, yet no one was saying when or what it was.

  Something had to give soon. Cooper had lost track of the number of glasses he’d broken.

  Hayley brushed a strand of hair from her eyes and turned to watch a pair of seagulls swoop past. She pointed them out to her father. Cooper moved his gaze to the man in the wheelchair. It was a warm day, and the doctors agreed that fresh air and sunshine would benefit his recovery, but Ernie Tavistock was bundled in a blanket and scarf. Not surprising that he would feel chilled, considering what a cold-hearted bastard he was.

  Cooper gritted his teeth. He realized Hayley would be upset if she knew what he was thinking, but it was because of her that he felt this way. She was still knocking herself out for the old man, still looking at her father with hopeless longing in her eyes. Once a day, no matter what, Cooper brought her here so she could visit him. And every day, no matter how hard she tried to please him, Ernie took her efforts for granted and only wanted to talk about Saint Adam.

  It was like the lack of photographs in Ernie’s study. It was too subtle to notice right away, but once Cooper knew what to look for, it was hard to ignore.

  Okay, he realized the situation with Sproule had him on edge anyway so he wasn’t in the best of moods. He did feel sorry for Ernie. Anyone would. Th
e guy had lost his son and his health all at once. No one, whether he was a career cop or not, deserved to end up like that.

  But Ernie’s manner toward Hayley wasn’t a result of his condition. From what Cooper had gathered, it had been going on for years. For some reason, Ernie was blind to what a loyal, compassionate and loving woman his daughter was. All he saw was Adam.

  That’s been the pattern of my life. I always seem to fall for men who aren’t able to love me.

  Cooper didn’t have any fancy psychology degree, but it was as plain as the lines of strain on Hayley’s face why she had a hangup about being loved.

  She sure had gotten the short end of the stick when it came to her family.

  But then, Cooper wasn’t about to change any of that, was he? She had him pegged right. He didn’t want to care about anyone, much less love them. Love was for other people, not for him. It was for characters on soap operas or for the kids who lived in regular houses and got grounded when they skipped school.

  Why did she have to make it so complicated, anyway? What was wrong with two people simply enjoying each other?

  They would be good together. Hayley was passionate about everything she did. The kisses they had shared convinced him she would be dynamite in bed. Seeing her here in the sunshine, watching the breeze flirt with her hair, made him think about how good her curls would look all tangled from his fingers, spread out on his pillow or maybe tumbled over the edge of the mattress while they made love in the middle of the patch of sunlight that fell over his bed in the afternoon….

  Hayley glanced past her father and met Cooper’s gaze. “We’re going back inside now,” she called.

  Cooper took a few seconds to rein his thoughts into line, then pushed away from the tree and walked to the back of the wheelchair. He gripped the handles and turned it toward the main building. “All set, Mr. Tavistock?”

  Ernie nodded. He seldom spoke to Cooper. Cooper could understand that. Even though Hayley had assured her father that their association was strictly business, it was tough for a man like Ernie to accept the fact that his daughter was living above a bar with an ex-con, a former thief his own son had arrested.