No Longer Lost: Secrets Of Stone: Book Nine Read online

  “I wish I could erase all the hard parts from your life and make them easier.” He pulled me into his embrace and kissed my forehead. I wrapped my arms around his waist and inhaled his perfect Mac smell. I didn’t know what it was exactly—some combination of the soap he used in the shower and his laundry detergent. I didn’t know him to use cologne. It was just…him.

  “But if you changed those things about me, I wouldn’t be me.” I leaned back to look up at him.

  “True. I just want to give you everything. The world. I want to make you my queen.” He smiled down at me, his green eyes twinkling under the florescent lights of the brightly lit garage.

  “Well, let’s just stick with this cute little hatchback, and we’ll both be super happy. How’s that?” I grinned, so happy with the idea of a new car, especially one that was his.

  “I’ll take it!” he shouted as if winning a game show bonus round.

  I stretched up on my tippy-toes and kissed him. “Thank you. For everything.”

  “You’re very welcome. Tomorrow we’ll take her home.”

  “Does she have a name already?” I asked.

  “Nope. The honor will be yours,” he said, bowing low at the waist to formally bestow the duty upon me.

  “How exciting!” I clapped my hands tightly in front of my chest. “Well, I’ll have to drive her for a while. Get to know her personality. We’ll also need to discuss a payment plan. Come up with something that fits into my budget.” We left the garage and headed back upstairs to the living space.

  “I’ve been thinking about it, and I’d like to pitch in with the rent too. Oh, and the utilities. Obviously groceries, but that’s just a no-brainer.” I was prattling on and on, and Mac was unusually quiet. When I looked back over my shoulder to see if he was still behind me, I caught him staring at my ass while we were headed to the bedroom.

  “Hey! I’m talking! Have you heard a word I’ve said?” I chastised, already aware of the answer.

  “Uh…no?” he answered with very little guilt.

  “What has gotten into you?”

  “It’s those damn yoga pants. Your ass looks phenomenal in them. I don’t think you should wear those outside the house anymore.” He couldn’t peel his eyes off my butt even while he spoke to me.

  “Maclain Stone. Can you hear yourself right now?”

  “Yeah. I hear it. It sounds like M-I-N-E. And I don’t share. At all.” He smacked my rear right when we got into the room, and when I whirled around to retaliate, he grabbed me around the waist and kissed me so thoroughly the room spun.

  “Holy Jesus,” I finally said when we came up for air.

  “Now, if these look this good on you, let’s see how good they look on the floor,” he said with a wolfish grin, tucking his fingers into my pants at the waistband.

  The next round of lovemaking was as stellar as the first but not nearly as sweet as the third. By the time we slept, the clock had struck midnight, and we had both passed out like babies.

  Happy, sated, and deeply, madly in love with one another. The world could try to break us down, but together, we were stronger than good and evil.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Mac

  We took the longer route home to Oceanside late the next morning. I planned on reorganizing some things in the garage once we got home so both cars could fit inside. The salty air was brutal on everything, including car exteriors. Taylor did great with the manual transmission once she worked out the rust.

  “Just like riding a bike,” she bragged over the Bluetooth phone connection once we were well established on the 10 freeway and on our way out of the Coachella Valley.

  “Well? What do you think of the car so far? Do you like the way it handles?” I was anxious to hear her review of the Focus RS.

  “Yes!” she answered enthusiastically. “I think I’m a little bit in love, actually.”

  “Do I need to be jealous?” I teased.

  “Nah, this stick has nothing on yours, Clown.” Her adorable giggle filled the cabin of my M2 as I glided along in traffic behind her. Once she was more comfortable with the car, we would have a lot of fun in the canyons through Temecula and Fallbrook, but for now I kept a safe distance behind her, and we held steady at the speed limit as we made our way home.

  She’d had a voicemail message this morning from Detective Johnson saying there was new information about her case. We’d told him before we left San Diego that we were headed to the desert for a couple of days, so he said to call the station when we got back into town. We debated driving straight into the city and checking in with him in person, but with two cars and the shitty parking situation downtown, we decided to stop at the beach and call first.

  It was close to two in the afternoon when we pulled into the driveway. I opened the garage door with my clicker, and she quickly snaked the available spot inside with her Focus.

  “Brat,” I muttered as I swung into the driveway behind her. I made a mental note to find the other garage-door opener as we both slammed our car doors and met at the entrance to go inside the house.

  “Are you ready to hear what Johnson has up his sleeve?” I asked as I sorted through my key ring to find the right one for the house.

  “As ready as I’ll ever be, I guess. But before we do that, I want to say something to you.”

  I unlocked the door and held it open for her to go inside. I pressed the lock icon on my key fob and closed the garage door before following her inside. When I finally looked at her, she was waiting patiently for me to finish my coming-home ritual.

  “Sorry.” I grinned and quickly stole a kiss. “What do you want to say?”

  She’d kept her arms locked around my neck from when I kissed her, and her face sobered. “Thank you for loaning me that car. I love it. And, if I haven’t said it yet today, I love you. Very, very much.” She stretched up and kissed me this time, and I was delighted to indulge her.

  “You’re welcome, sassy girl. I love you too. Very much. It was one of the best experiences following you home in a safe, freeway-capable car. I could breathe so much easier knowing you would make it the entire way without overheating or breaking down on the side of the road before we got here.”

  “But you loved Sally as much as I did.” She pouted, and I couldn’t resist nipping at her lower lip. It was like dangling a pot of honey in front of a bear.

  “I did, you’re right. But the old girl had seen better days. Very soon after I met you, I fell in love with you, and with that came a very primal need to take care of you and keep you safe. That car was a roadside incident waiting to happen.”

  “Well, like I said, thank you. You know I was just busting your balls by pulling into the garage in front of you, right? I don’t expect to take the M2’s spot. After we call Johnson, we can swap them.” She released her arms from around my neck and stroked them up and down my arms a few times.

  “I think if I do some rearranging out there, there should be enough room for both cars. They’re both so small, they should easily fit.”

  “I like that they’re both white. Kind of like his and hers.” Her grin was so adorable, I couldn’t help squeezing her closer to me. “Is that dorky?” She looked up to me, starting to get embarrassed.

  “Not at all. I love it.” I pulled her into me by handfuls of her perfect ass.

  “I have a confession—of sorts.” She backed out of my embrace, picked up her overnight bag, and headed toward the staircase. I followed with mine, wanting to hear what she had to say.

  “Oooooh, is this going to be juicy? Tell me! Tell me!”

  She laughed. “You might be disappointed if you’re looking for gossip. Or hot-sorority-girl-pillow-fight-type secrets.”

  Looking dramatically disappointed, I trudged up the stairs behind her, acting like my duffle bag weighed eighty pounds all of a sudden.

  “You’re such a dork.” She laughed.

  “But you love me, you said so yourself. Just a few minutes ago,” I reminded her in a playful
singsong tone.

  “Yeah, I guess I did, didn’t I?” She made a face like she’d just eaten something spoiled.

  “Yep. And no take-backs either,” I teased.

  “Wow, you’re a tough player, aren’t you?” She dropped her bag on the bed and flopped down beside it.

  “In all seriousness, tell me what you were going to say. I’m all ears.” I knelt down at the side of the bed and nudged my way between her legs. Holding her hands in mine, I waited for her to speak, honestly wanting to know everything there was to know about my amazing girl.

  She looked at me for a moment or two. Really just studied my features—to the point where I began feeling a bit self-conscious.

  “You are so beautiful, Dr. Stone. Honestly, you are the most handsome man I’ve ever laid eyes on.” Her blue eyes were the color of denim in the afternoon sun shining in off the Pacific.

  “Thank you, baby.” I was touched by her genuine compliment.

  “My whole life, I’ve put a lot of effort into knowing what I didn’t want. I knew I didn’t want to end up like Janet, for example. Didn’t want to depend on my children to survive, didn’t want to be an addict or a loser.” She grinned. Something about that was funny, apparently.

  But then she continued, still holding my hands, even tighter than before, and still looking me straight in the eyes. “I knew I didn’t want to live in a double-wide, and I didn’t want to trip from one man to the next, making promises I’d never keep. I didn’t want to let people down time and time again. I definitely knew I didn’t want to be a burden. On anyone.”

  “That all makes perfect sense,” I said quietly, sensing there was more to what she was trying to say.

  “But I never spent time thinking about the things I did want in life. Doing that meant I had hope that I would get those things. And hoping always led to disappointment. Always. So I stopped having hope.”

  Tears welled up in her eyes, and I wanted to take her in my arms and make all the pain in her crappy adolescent years go away. I wanted to erase it all and give her the perfect do-over right then and there.

  “Until I met you,” she said as one lone tear ran down her soft cheek. Usually she would angrily swipe tears away the minute they were shed, but that tear was a trailblazer, and it deserved to run free. I watched it streak down her face and curve around her jaw, finally dropping off onto my wrist where our hands were joined on her lap. It was like she had given that little bit of herself to me as a symbol. A small offering to show me how open her heart had become, how her once unavailable emotional existence had been resuscitated. Where there was once a barren and desolate wasteland, there was now a lush and fruitful meadow just waiting to be cultivated and harvested and thoroughly enjoyed.

  “Thank you,” I said. It almost seemed banal. But really, nothing more was needed. It encapsulated so much of what I felt for so much about her—about her mere existence in my life.

  She chuckled. “What are you thanking me for? I feel like I should just play a recording of me saying thank you to you on repeat, over and over. You’ve given me so much already, Mac. So much. Things I can’t even articulate. Things I just feel in here.” She released my hand to touch her chest, on top of her heart. “You’ve given me life.”

  I laid my head in her lap like I’ve seen children do with their mothers. Of course, I didn’t remember ever doing that with my own mother. She probably would shoo me away and complain I was wrinkling her designer clothing. Or, God forbid, someone might see me doing it.

  Taylor stroked my hair, and my eyes closed automatically. When she added her fingernails to the motion, I was in blissful heaven.

  “Oh, that feels so good. I could do this for hours.”

  “What do you mean ‘do this’? You aren’t really doing anything,” she teased.

  “Okay, I could let you do that for hours. Better?”

  “Grammatically, yes. But practically? No.” She laughed. “I have to call Detective Johnson before he leaves for the day, remember?”

  “Damn it. I knew I didn’t like that guy. Just another reason,” I mumbled into her thighs.

  “Well, if we’re living right, he’s going to have good news for us. Let’s just get it over with. Then we can work on the garage.”

  “I can do that. You don’t have to worry about it,” I said, sitting back on my heels and then rolling up to stand.

  “I don’t mind helping. Two of us can get it done quicker than one, right?” she asked with a cheery tone as we both headed back to the kitchen.

  “So the saying goes. Do you want a drink? Beer?”

  “Nah, I’m just going to grab my phone,” she said, looking around from side to side. “Where the hell did I put my purse?”

  “Did you bring it in from the car? You had the key and your phone in it, and we talked on the phone during the drive and you had the ignition on, so I know you didn’t leave it in Thermal.”

  “God, wouldn’t that suck?”

  “Yes—and no. We’d have to go spend another night. And honestly, last night was one of the best nights of my life.” I was not exaggerating. The woman nearly fucked me to death, and I would’ve died with a smile wider than the Grand Canyon.

  “Okay, I’ll go look in the car,” she said, heading to the garage. She returned in less than a minute with her bag in hand, cell phone already held to her ear.

  “Hello. Detective Johnson, please. Yes, this is Taylor Mathews returning his call. Yes, thank you.” She held the phone away from her mouth slightly and said to me, “I’m on hold while they page him or whatever.”

  “Would you mind putting the call on speaker? I’d love to hear what he has to say.” I was hoping I hadn’t stepped over some personal space line by asking.

  “Oh, good call!” she said enthusiastically, laying my worry to rest. She set her phone on the kitchen island and pressed the icon for speakerphone, and we both sat down on stools around the counter.

  “This is Johnson.” The detective’s voice filled my beach house kitchen.

  “Hi, Detective Johnson. This is Taylor Mathews, and Dr. Stone is here with me as well. If you don’t mind, we have you on speakerphone so we can both hear the call.”

  “Well, that’s up to you, Ms. Mathews. It’s your case,” he answered nonchalantly. This guy seriously got on my nerves. I rolled my eyes at Taylor, and she responded with an eye roll of her own.

  “Oh, okay. So your voicemail said there was new information. What’s going on?” Taylor got straight to the point, and I was really grateful. The last thing I felt like doing was making small talk with the asshole.

  “Let me just grab your file here, to keep everything accurate, you know. I have a crazy caseload at the moment. Well, who am I kidding, with budget cuts, it’s always like this.”

  Taylor and I just stayed silent while he fumbled around, filling the phone line with noise from shuffling papers and drawers opening and closing. Finally, he cleared his throat a couple of times and got back to our conversation.

  “The lab reports came in late on Friday. Munson was working, but I was already gone for the day. My kid had a soccer tournament, and I promised her I’d be there. So anyway, looks like we have more than enough evidence to bring Busby in for the break-in and vandalism at your apartment. I thought you’d want to know we’re going to his place of employment this afternoon to arrest him.”

  “Well, what do you know,” I said. “Can we go there and watch?”

  “Isn’t that also your place of employment, Dr. Stone?” the detective asked, not understanding that I was joking. Sort of.

  “Yes, it is,” I answered dryly.

  “Well, nothing’s stopping you from being at your job. You can do whatever floats your boat.”

  Taylor shook her head from where she sat. Apparently she thought the whole thing was a bad idea. We could talk about it when we hung up with Barney Fife.

  “Detective, I forgot to ask you about my car when I was at the station last week. When we went to my apartment to clean
up and get my belongings, I saw that my car had been vandalized as well. Did you also find he was the one who did that?”

  “Ummm, I don’t recall seeing anything about a vehicle in any of the reports, and I didn’t personally write up anything about a car in my report. I can check with Detective Munson and see if he did any work-ups on a car at the scene and get back to you.”

  “Thank you. I’d appreciate it,” Taylor clipped.

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. How could they have missed the damage done to Sally?

  “Is the vehicle still on-site now?” the detective asked.

  “I believe so?” Taylor looked at me, and I nodded yes. I hadn’t made arrangements to have it towed as of yet, still under the impression it was police evidence. Maybe it would be better to just scrap Sally and put it all behind us. Another thing to talk about when we hung up.

  “So what happens after you arrest him today?” Taylor asked.

  “Well, he will be held until an arraignment can be scheduled,” Johnson responded.

  “What does that mean?” she fired off before he had a chance to explain.

  I was a little surprised by all the run-ins her mother had with the police that she wasn’t more familiar with the judicial system.

  “That’s when he is formally charged with the crimes he’s committed. We will file our case with the prosecutor’s office, and they have up to seventy-two hours to formally bring their charges to the judge at an arraignment.”

  The man was prattling on like he was giving a lecture to a room full of high school students. Clearly he loved the sound of his own voice when in know-it-all mode.

  “I doubt he will be released without a bail hearing. That may or may not be done in conjunction with the arraignment. The court system is so impacted, we see separate dates more and more lately. So, at a second court date, a bail amount will be determined. If he can post bail, he will be able to leave lockup until his trial date, usually with restrictions such as no leaving the state, he has to check in with a probation officer weekly, or more often, et cetera. If he cannot post bail, he will remain in jail until his trial.”