Her chest squeezed tight. “Is it the frostbite? How bad is it?”
“The doc assures me it’s minimal. Her paws, mostly. But it can take up to five days to be certain of the extent, so she stays so he can treat her for a full recovery.”
She swallowed. “Maybe we shouldn’t have sent her out.”
“No.” His voice was strangely gentle. And the hand at her chin had become a caress. This was not the Battise she knew. “Don’t second-guess yourself. We could have been stuck out in the cold overnight. Becker wouldn’t have made it. It was the right thing to do. And Sam was the right dog to send for help.”
Jori glanced at him skeptically. “Am I hearing praise for the Cheez Doodle from you?”
He ducked his head, but his expression was warm. “I guess you are. She’s got miles of heart, that dog. Nobody could have asked more of a canine.”
“Then you’re going to keep her?”
This time his expression wasn’t mild at all. He lifted his head so she got the full effect. It singed her ears. “I’m thinking about keeping everything I picked up at Warriors Wolf Pack. If that’s okay with you.”
It didn’t take more than a single heartbeat for her to give up being cool and lift her arms about his neck and kiss him. She meant it to be a flirtation. But the moment she touched the hard reality of him, she remembered she was dealing with Battise, a law unto himself.
He swept her up in an embrace that lifted her off her feet and engulfed her mouth with his in a kiss that was hungry and demanding and completely sexual.
When she lifted her head, his eyes were molten and her feet still hung off the ground. “I owe you something.”
She tightened her arms around his neck, wondering if the staff of WWP was looking at them through the windows. “What would that be?”
He glanced at the windows, too. “I could show you here but it might get us arrested.”
He saw her smile fade, and his heart sank. “You should know, Lauray Battise, that what you think you owe me and what you want from me aren’t the same thing.”
He set her very carefully back on her feet but couldn’t quite let go. His hands gripped her waist. “How’s that?”
“You said you’d let me know if you found out anything important. You didn’t call about Luke Tice giving up his candidacy.”
He nodded. “I was going to do that, in a little while.”
“What about Erin Tice admitting that she’s going into rehab because of her addiction to painkillers?”
“Where’d you hear about that?”
“The sorority grapevine. You remember Chelsea Bennett from the wedding? She called with the news. She said everyone knew Erin had a problem since college but she’d cleaned up her act to marry Luke. She claims a sports injury is to blame this time for her addiction. Chelsea thinks she’s just using it as an excuse to hide out while Luke deals with all the fallout that’s coming their way.”
“She has no idea. Unless Luke told her what I did.”
Jori looked up at him. “What did you do?”
“Told him I was going to nail his sorry ass to the wall for running his cousin off the road.”
“You threatened him? No. Wait.” Jori gave her head a little shake. “You think Luke drove Brody off the road?”
Law nodded slowly. “He did it, Jori. I got it out of him. And I think I can prove it.”
“Wow.” Jori thought she probably shouldn’t feel anything like happy, considering the revelation that Brody had been murdered. But there was a relief in knowing what happened. There had been so many unknowns in her life during that time. “I’ve always wondered what would have happened if Brody hadn’t missed that curve. Now I’ll never know.”
A spasm of pain crossed Law’s features at her wistful tone. “If Brody hadn’t died that night, he would still have been out of your life. You’d already given him back his ring. You would have moved out. You would never have been searched and arrested, and all the rest.” He leaned down to rest his forehead against hers. “It was just pure bad luck, Jori. It should never have happened to you. But at least now, we know the truth. I promised you that.”
She leaned back so that she could see his face. “You did all that for me? A man who never gets involved.”
He lifted his head, his heart in his eyes. “I’d do just about anything to make you smile.”
Jori smiled. “You only have to show up, Law.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
“Twenty-two. Twenty-three.” Law was panting. Counting had never been such hard work, or so much fun.
“Twenty-four, -five, -six.” He flexed his hips in quick succession, burying himself deep inside Jori each time.