Jill Shalvis - Aussie Rules

“I will.”

“Unless it’s bad news. Oh, God, do you think it’s bad news?”

“Bad in comparison to what, Dimi?”

“Right.” Dimi drew a ragged breath. “Right. Maybe…I know this sounds crazy, but maybe he’s calling to tell us he found out it’s all some sort of mistake.”

Mel had no hopes left, false or otherwise. “What kind of mistake involves taking money and property that doesn’t belong to you?”

“Yeah,” Dimi sighed. “Wishful thinking and all that.”

“I’m going to take the call now,” Mel said gently. “I’ll just buzz you when I’m off-”

Before she’d even finished her sentence, Dimi opened Mel’s office door and slid inside, breathing heavily. “Well?”

“Uh, I haven’t taken the call yet,” Mel said dryly, then clicked over. “Mel Anderson. Can I help you?”

“How many aliases for Sally are you expecting?” Matt asked.

“Well?” Dimi whispered. “Is she alive?”

Mel held up her finger. “As many as you can find, Matt.”

“I’ve unearthed four without any effort,” he said. “I’m not a betting man, but you can be sure if it was this easy, there are more.”

Four aliases, minimum. If there’d been only the one, someone could make the argument that Sally had had a good reason for vanishing under a different name. Fear, danger…

But four.

Four.

“There’s more,” Matt said. “The last alias on record, Tara Louise? She was married for two years to a man who just recently died in New Orleans. Suspiciously. She’s wanted for questioning but has vanished.”

Mel gripped her phone tight. “Oh, my God.”

A man dead.

Until Bo had arrived, Mel had faced only a moral dilemma. Yes, Sally had vanished, but she hadn’t done anything to Mel, at least nothing criminal. So what right did she have to dig?

But now…Now there were many reasons; for the rights of the victims, for one.

For Bo’s father.

For Bo himself.

The thought came out of nowhere. Mel wanted answers for Bo, for that eighteen-year-old who’d lost so much, for the man who’d never lost his belief in his father.

And then there was the fact that Sally had instructed Mel and Dimi to act criminally without their knowledge.

“Melanie?” Matt asked. “You there?”

“Yes, thank you. I’ll get back to you.” She hung up and stared at the phone.

“Four aliases?” Dimi sounded as dazed as she felt, and staggered to a chair. “Four,” she said again, stunned.

“Maybe more,” Mel told her. “Probably more. And let’s not forget the coup de grâce: an ex, dead under suspicious circumstances.”

“Two,” Dimi whispered. “Two ex’s dead, if you count Eddie. Do you think…my God…Do you think she somehow killed Eddie?”

It was too terrible to even think about. “We have to face facts right now, Deem,” Mel said, her voice trembling. “Together. Sentiment doesn’t have a place here. Sally’s in big trouble and we both know we can no longer help her. But we can help the people she’s hurt.”

Dimi reached for Mel’s hand. “Don’t worry. I’m not falling apart. And I’m all yours, at least for the duration of this disaster.”

“For the duration? That sounds a little…temporary.”

“Yeah.” Dimi stared at their joined hands. Hers were smaller, more delicate, with a perfect manicure and silver bracelets lined up her left wrist, jangling prettily. “You remember I told you about wanting to be a nurse.”

“Yes.”

“I’ve decided to go to a nursing school and the one I want to go to is in San Diego. I’ve registered, just today. Classes start in the fall.”

Just two months away. “I see.”

“Do you?” She scooted closer. “Do you really, Mel? You’re not mad, upset, freaking out? Because I freaked out at first, the thought of leaving here, of being separated from you, but it’s just…” She paused, her eyes misting. “Damn it, I don’t want to cry.”

“It’s okay, I get it. It’s what you have to do.”

“Yeah.” One tear escaped and with a sound of frustration, she swiped at it. “But I’ll be back. I want to work out of the hospital in town, only ten minutes away. That won’t be so bad.”

“It’ll be good,” Mel assured her, and they hugged hard, Mel feeling her own eyes go damp. “Shit.”

They laughed a little over the waterworks, then Dimi spoke. “See, so I’m not leaving you for long. Or Danny.”

“Danny?”

“We’re going to try things out.” She smiled with her entire heart in her eyes. “It’ll be from a distance at first, but that’s okay. I need the time.”

“You and Danny?” Mel repeated, surprised.

Dimi’s face closed a bit, her shoulders straightened. “I’m not going to hurt him, I wouldn’t do that. Why do you think I resisted facing the truth about my feelings so long? The last thing I’d ever do is hurt-”

“Oh, honey, I’m not worried about him. He’s a big boy, and he knows what he wants. I meant you. I’m worried about you.”

“You shouldn’t be. I’m a little fragile, I know, but like I said, I need some time.” Dimi shook her head. “What Sally did sucks, and it hurts…” She pressed a hand to her gut. “Hurts like I didn’t know I could be hurt. But with Danny, I just feel…alive. Like I haven’t felt in a long time.” Her eyes were clear. Happy. “Whatever happens,” she said with intense pride, “I know I’m going to be okay.”

Mel nodded, understanding perfectly. She felt alive, too, vibrantly alive, and she had a feeling it had something to do with Bo. Everything to do with Bo. “I’ll miss you,” she whispered, and they held each other for a long time. Mel didn’t want to let go. For as long as she could remember, they’d been a team. A duo.

But it was the end of an era, and that was okay. Things changed. She’d live. When Dimi was gone, Mel stared sightlessly out at the tarmac, wondering what their future held. She’d always assumed that for her, it would be this place. North Beach.

Now…who knew?

“Looking pretty serious, mate.”

Mel’s heart clutched. Her everything clutched as she turned and faced Bo. “What would you know about serious?”

With a cocked eyebrow, he shut her office door behind him and leaned back against it, arms and feet casually crossed as he smiled at her. “You’re uptight again.”

“Let me guess. You have just the cure?”

“You know it.”

“Doesn’t thinking with your dick ever get tiring?”

“Oh, I do more than think with it.”

Yep. And no one knew that better than she. “I’m busy. You need to get out.” She rubbed her temples and remembered the reason. Matt had called. She had to tell Bo. She owed him. “Damn it, I have to tell you something.”

The amusement was gone in a blink. “What’s wrong?”

She laughed a bit harshly, and he frowned just as her computer beeped. Incoming mail. She glanced at it, then went still.

Bo took one look at her face and moved close. “Another one, then?”

Standing behind her as he was, he surrounded her, a hand on either side, gripping her desk. His chest brushed her back. His jaw was so close to her head that a strand of her hair stuck to the day-old growth of stubble there. She craned her neck so that her gaze met his. “A new one.” She could have hidden it, but no more secrets-well, except one. But she doubted he wanted to hear how much she’d gotten used to having him around. How much she’d begun to feel for him.

Want him.

“Is this the first e-mail since the last one you showed me?” he demanded.

“Yes.”

His gaze scanned her face. Looking for honesty, no doubt, but then he let out a breath. “Either you’re getting better at lying, or I’m going soft on you, but I actually believe you.”

“You’re…going soft on me?”

“Jesus, Mel, you can’t tell?”

“I like words,” she said carefully. “There’s less misunderstanding with words.”

He opened his mouth, but before her eyes, his own shuttered, and his smile was strained and humorless. “You’re trying to distract me from your incoming mail.”

“I’m not.”

“Prove it. Show it to me.”

“I will. But you should know, Matt just called me. He unearthed four more aliases for Sally. The last one, the most recent…She was married, but her husband died. Suspiciously.”

They looked at each other. “Now Sally’s wanted for questioning,” she added softly, and clicked on the new e-mail, gasping at who it was from: Tara Louise.

“Let me guess,” Bo said grimly. “One of those aliases is Tara Louise. Probably the one with the dead husband.”

“Bingo, you win the prize,” Mel murmured, still in shock.

“If it’s you on a platter, count me in.”

“This is serious, Bo.”

“Yes, I’m serious as a heart attack. Mel, look at me.”

She lifted her head. He was close enough to kiss. Close enough to look into his eyes and see the utter honesty there for her to take. He wanted her. But she already knew that much, he’d made it abundantly clear. Her body mesmerized him.

Well, they were even there.

The problem? More than just his body mesmerized her. Yeah, don’t go there. She leaned in to read the e-mail, but cupped her face and held her gaze.

“We’re scaring her. You know that.”

“She can join the club, then.”

He slid his fingers into the hair at her temple, his eyes unusually solemn. “She’s on the run, she’s scared and she’s pissed. She’s going to blame us. Me, I’m more than ready for the face-off. You-”

“She won’t hurt me.”

“Mel, she’s threatening you. She’s threatening you because of me, because I came back and dug all this up. I’m the catalyst, not you.”

“No-”

“I’m not going to let anything happen to you,” he said fiercely.

“Nothing’s going to happen to me, she’s long gone now.” With that, Mel clicked open the e-mail.

Dear Mel,

I’m sorry. God, I’m so sorry for every-fucking-thing. But please, if you ever cared about me at all, even a fraction of what I feel for you, please stop trying to trace me. Please, Mel. Save my life. Stop trying to find me.

Love,

Me

Bo leaned in farther, his jaw actually brushing her as his fingers pushed hers aside and started clicking on the keyboard.

“What are you doing?” she asked, watching as he opened her browser, and pasted something from the e-mail on to the page. Then his fingers were clicking over the keys, far faster than she could type, and she couldn’t follow what he was doing.

“Fuck,” he said softly, and straightened away from her.

“What?” she asked, but he was already running. Leaping up, she grabbed ahold of his shirt at the door. “Bo.”

“That e-mail,” he grated out. “It came from within the airport. It came from one of your computers right here on the premises.”

With Mel on his heels, Bo went running through the lobby, skidding to a stop at the front desk’s computer so fast that she plowed into the back of him, hard.

He could smell her shampoo as her hair slapped him. And if he closed his eyes, he could still feel the way it’d stroked his throat and chest when she’d straddled him, when she slid down his body, her silky hair and mouth driving him to the edge of sanity.

Focus, mate.

Dimi sat behind the front desk, a pair of reading glasses perched on her nose, legs crossed, holding a ledger, which she dropped at the sight of them.

Leaving in her hands a paperback novel that she shoved behind her back. Bo didn’t care what she was reading, it was her computer he wanted to see, and he moved around the desk, turning her screen to face him.

“Hey,” she protested. “Paws off.”

Ignoring her, Bo clicked on a few keys, then looked up at Mel and shook his head.

“Of course not,” Mel said in quick defense of Dimi.

“Do we have any customers onsite?” Bo asked.

Dimi shook her head. “No. But what-”

“I’ll be back to tell you,” Mel promised. “Hurry,” she said unnecessarily to Bo, then pushed ahead of him to run out of the lobby, along the tarmac toward the maintenance hangar.

And the computer there.

Danny was at that desk, leaning back, feet up, flipping through a manual while sipping a Big Gulp soda. “Hey, guys, I found a new distributor, with cheaper-What are you doing?”

Bo had leaned right over him to hit a few keys.

The computer stayed dark.

“It’s not on.” Danny eyed them both with a growing frown. “It froze up a few hours ago and I shut it off. I didn’t need it right now so I never turned it back on. What’s happening?”

“Someone just e-mailed me,” Mel said. “From inside North Beach.”

“Must have been one hell of an e-mail,” Danny said quietly, taking in their tension.

Mel looked at Bo. “Yeah, a hell of an e-mail. That’s it, Bo, except for Ernest’s old laptop that we use as a backup, but-”

“Wait.” Bo stared at her, it was all sinking in. The only common denominator and they hadn’t seen it. Christ, they’d been stupid. “Ernest.”