Hold up.
Someone was at the front door.
Her father’s front door.
Geez, Bonnie. Pull your head out already.
She hustled after Roman, totally disregarding his instructions in favor of curiosity and a fresh wave of hope.
The banging started again just as Roman jerked the door open.
A woman’s shrill voice fired back in an instant. “Where is he? Where is that no good son of a bitch? I wanna talk to him now.” The voice was somewhat familiar, but no face came to mind. Judging from the tone of it, it was someone younger, so the son of a bitch in question was undoubtedly her brother. Whoever it was, was clearly too pissed off to realize who they were yelling at.
Roman didn’t seem to care how angry she was and replied back with deadly calm. “Who are you?”
“I’m Kevin’s girlfriend, Jennette, that’s who. Who the fuck are you?”
Stunned by the fact that Kevin had actually fired up any kind of a relationship, Bonnie muttered aloud without thinking. “Jennette? Jennette Simpson?”
Roman’s gaze cut to Bonnie, and he opened his mouth, a reprimand no doubt queued up on his tongue.
Bonnie ducked beneath his arm and faced her brother’s alleged girlfriend. “That’s Roman and he’s with me.”
“Thank fucking God. Someone with an actual head on their shoulders.” She sneered at Roman then barked at Bonnie. “Where is that asshole?”
“Uh, if the two of you are a thing now, then you’ve got better odds of knowing than me. He’s been gone over a week, and I can’t find him.”
“Hmmph. Probably out banging Sarah Conrad the way I hear it.”
Eww. Sarah Conrad was a desperate measure even for Kev’s questionable standards. “What makes you say that?”
“Because Missy Reynolds said she saw the two of them weekend before last at The Nomad right before they left together.”
“You sure it was that far back?”
“A week before last Saturday night. Missy was working tables, and that idiot brother of yours sure as shit hasn’t called me since, so yeah. I’m sure. Now, where is he?”
Bonnie glanced back at Roman, the frown on his face a solid guarantee he was furious she’d intervened. “Like I said, we don’t know.”
For the first time since Roman had opened the door, Jennette seemed to lose some of her bluster. Her gaze narrowed and volleyed from Bonnie to Roman and back to Bonnie again. “Something happen?”
Roman palmed Bonnie’s shoulder and gave a nearly imperceptible squeeze, but Bonnie didn’t need the unspoken message to exercise caution. Jennette might have been a few years ahead of Bonnie in school, but her penchant for gossip was legendary. “Not that I know of, no. But it would be nice if I could track him down and get my money. I loaned him forty bucks around the same time Missy saw him, and I want it back.”
Jamming her hands in the pockets of her metallic puffer vest, Jennette scoffed and shook her head. “Yeah, good luck with that. Your brother goes through money faster than my daddy’s old Chevy goes through gas.” She peeked at Roman once more, then zeroed in on Bonnie. “When you see that piece of crap brother of yours, do me a favor, and tell him to stay the hell away from me and my place. If he wants Sarah Conrad he can have her.”
“Only if you promise to call me if you see him before I do. I want my money.”
Rolling her eyes, Jennette turned and stormed toward the Honda Civic parked in front of Roman’s truck.
She hadn’t even made it halfway to the street when Roman pulled Bonnie out of the doorway and shut the door with more force than necessary. He turned Bonnie and backed her against it. The way he crowded close, it was hard to tell if he was going to pick up where he’d left off in the bedroom, or read her the riot act. “I told you to stay where you were.”
Okay, so riot act it was. But she wasn’t putting up with it. It was bad enough she’d nearly climbed him like a tree in the bedroom—even if his kissing skills were off the charts awesome. “I know Jennette. No way she’d do anything but rant with you, but I at least had a shot of getting information out of her.”
He cupped the side of her neck and stroked the artery there with his thumb.
Her pulse leapt at the contact, every nerve ending beneath his calloused touch screaming its approval. “Don’t do that again,” she said too breathlessly for comfort.
He didn’t smile, exactly. More like looked at her as though torn between deadly intent and debauchery. “Don’t do what again?”
Kiss my brains out.
Curl my toes.
Scramble my wits.
“No more kissing,” she said. “I’m having a hard enough time keeping my feet grounded in reality with everything that’s going on. I don’t need you making that harder than it is.”
His eyebrows dipped into a deep V and some of the intensity slipped from his face, replaced with a mix of surprise and consideration. His features firmed almost as quickly and he cupped the back of her head. “You are right. Clarity is important. We will deal with that. Now.”
He stepped away, leaving an emotional gully between them.
Her heart practically swan-dived into it, disappointment, hurt and more than a little anger swirling in her belly. Hard to justify the latter, though. After all, she’d been the one to lay the boundary. It wasn’t fair to be pissed at a guy who actually listened—even if a part of her hated how easily he’d agreed.
“Are there any other locations we should search?” he asked, the epitome of a respectful businessman.
“No. If we didn’t find anything in his room, there’s nothing to find.”
“Then is there anything you need before we go?”
Her pride would be nice to have back. Maybe a rewind button so she didn’t have to live with the memory of how greedily she’d clung to him. She shook her head instead. “I’m good.”
A small smile played on his lips, a knowingness in his eyes she couldn’t quite figure out how to process. “No, vozlyublennaya. You are not good. But you will be. I will see to it.”
Chapter Thirteen
His brother was right. Roman had fallen victim to assumptions. Had drawn conclusions based on external evidence alone and surmised a lack of interest on Bonnie’s part. That the connection he’d forged with her the night she’d curled tightly beside him had been nothing more than a temporary human need for comfort. Why she’d acted indifferent since then, he couldn’t say. Perhaps Kir had been right about that as well and she simply didn’t know how to make her interest known. Perhaps it was outright fear of rejection or assumptions on her own part as to how their family operated.