“Lots of circumstances.”
“Specifically. Otterman?”
“That’s the most immediate circumstance.”
“I agree, so why not call Neal Lester? I’ll own up to sheltering you. Talk to him, reason with him lawman to lawman. Together, playing by the book, you’ll go after Otterman.”
“Okay, say we luck out and get him behind bars by nightfall. He signs a full confession of all his evil deeds. Then what? Our problems will still be there.”
“Back to those unspecified circumstances.”
“All right, I’ll name you one. You crossed a line with me.” He motioned toward the bed. “Your job, your career, the thing you hold most dear, wouldn’t be in jeopardy if not for me.”
“No one knows about us.”
“Yet. But secrets like this have a way, Holly. You’re not so naive as to think we can keep a lid on it.” By her silence, he knew she agreed. “Say the secret that we’ve slept together remains intact, and you lose the election anyway, we’ll always wonder if it was because of our association. I couldn’t live with costing you the judgeship. Could you?” He shook his head. “There are some things you and I just can’t get around.”
“The biggest one being that I stand in the way of you getting Georgia.”
He spread his hands as though to say, See? “We’re each other’s worst enemy.”
“You weren’t concerned about any of this last night.”
“I was. I just wanted you too bad to let the issues stop me.” Before she could offer a comeback, he said softly, “They didn’t stop you, either.”
The fight went out of her. “True. Because I had begun to think, hope, we could overcome these obstacles.”
“Some, maybe. Not all.”
She looked deeply into his eyes and said quietly, “Beth?”
That hit him unexpectedly, and his heart bumped, then began to beat erratically. “What about her?”
“You tell me.” Looking wounded, she glanced down at the tousled bed. “Was she in there with us?”
“No. No.” He combed back his hair with his fingers and drew in a ragged breath. “Christ, don’t think that. It’s not that at all.”
“Is that the truth?”
“Yes. I swear it.”
With alarming intuition, barely audibly, she said, “Just not the whole truth.”
No. Not the whole truth. The whole truth would doom him.
He came toward her slowly and placed his hands on her shoulders, turned her and gave a gentle push, so she landed facedown on the bed.
“Crawford?”
“Shh. Listen.”
Crouching over her, he ran his hands up the backs of her thighs, over her bottom, along her back, his thumbs tracing the corrugation of her spine. Then covering her hands with his, he interlocked their fingers and nuzzled her hair, which was sweet smelling and still damp from their shower.
“Holly, if I could, I’d be falling crazy in love with you. I’d have you in my life, my house, my bed. My heart.” When she moved as though trying to turn over, he pressed her down more firmly. “If I could. But I can’t.”
Gradually, he let go of her hands, eased up, and pushed himself off the bed. “Tell them I came in through your bedroom window, overpowered you, and stole your car. It’s all true.”
Chapter 30
He’d filched Holly’s car keys from the pocket of her jeans, which were still crumpled on the floor beside the bed. He remembered her telling him how she’d driven her car across her backyard, past the main house, and onto the next street without her guards out front being any the wiser.
Before Holly would have had a chance to raise the alarm, he was out the elderly lady’s driveway and winding his way through town, avoiding the thoroughfares. Sooner or later, he would be caught.
But later, he hoped.
As he drove, he called Joe Gilroy’s cell number. Grace answered. “Where’s Joe?” he asked.
“In the shower. He told me to listen for the phone.”
“Everything okay?”
“Neither of us has slept much, but we’re all right.”
“How’s Georgia?”
“Still asleep. She got upset last night, wondering why we’re here. She kept asking if you’d know where to find us.”
He had to talk around the lump that formed in his throat. “If she asks again, tell her I’ll always be able to find her.”
“Do you want me to wake her up so you can tell her that yourself?”
He was tempted, but it would be selfish of him. Hearing her voice would make him feel better, but it would increase Georgia’s homesickness and add to her anxiety over the unusual situation.
“Thanks for offering,” he told Grace, meaning it. “I trust you to keep her reassured.”
When she expressed concern for him, he hedged, mumbling that he was fine. “I hope all this will be over soon and you can come home. I can’t thank you enough for doing this.”
“Be safe, Crawford.”
“You too.” He clicked off before she asked questions he wouldn’t know how to answer.